Transforming the Clunky Orga- nization: Pragmatic Leadership Skills for Breaking Inertia

Bacharach (The Agenda Mover), a professor of labor-management relations at Cornell University, offers a no-nonsense, straightforward approach to surmounting what he sees as the primary organizational challenge for business leaders, namely inertia. This condition can have two sources: the “clunky tendency,” when companies are disorganized, and the “myopic tendency,” when organizations are organized in outmoded ways. The result of both these problems is that a business isn’t able to deliver goods or services as flexibly and capably as in the past. In response, he contends, leaders must address five questions, including why the organization is sluggish, what other options exist, what can be done, what support is needed, and how should the chosen solution be implemented. Bacharach’s advice centers on the complementary processes of “robust discovery,” a period of openness to new ideas, and “focused delivery,” the methodical execution of the chosen idea. With both processes, he stresses the importance of reading “signals” from the market, citing as a successful example PepsiCo’s diversifying its product line into “fun for you,” “good for you,” and “better for you” categories in response to greater consumer concern with health. Through this and other useful, real-world examples, this work offers well-thought-out methods for transforming struggling businesses. (July)